Unofficial news about chess in Dunfermline and the happenings in the Central League!

Tuesday, 23 November 2010

Bad night in the office for the Dunfermline side.

I was not available for this match and waited with baited breath at what I thought would be just a matter of how much the Dunfermline side won by.

Oops, now I wish this match had been re-arranged. On the plus side, Dunfermline's results are repeating themselves from last year and the title is still in their hands.

Well done to Stirling for overcoming big grading deficits on every board.

Captains report by Ian Robertson.

On paper this looked tricky for Stirling but in practice they possibly should have gone on to win. With Dunfermline boards 1 & 5 suffering from ill-health both struggled to get properly involved and that could have led to a 2-0 advantage to Stirling if top board had gone for a win instead of making multiple draw offers. Gavin’s opponent went for that good old plan of glory or bust and was rewarded with the latter when he quickly found himself 2 pawns down and zero compensation. Garry had extra space and a bit of initiative but a breakthrough was difficult to accomplish and towards the end the position may have been turning against him when Steve opted instead to neutralise the game with an exchange of pieces on e5. That left Michael last to finish again and he went into N & P’s endgame with an extra pawn but less active K & N. To get his pieces in play the material had to be returned leaving a balanced position. Graham accepted the draw offer for a drawn match.